"We deserve that reaction from the fans," he said. "We deserve to be booed for points in games. We deserve for the stadium to be a little bit empty towards the end of the game because we have not performed well enough."

As Rowett tries to put his own stamp on the club and turn the tide, at least he lasted four games before he got cat calls. Stoke fans, when they're angry, aren't always that patient.

Tony Pulis got 70 minutes.

What was Stoke like when you joined? 'An absolute shambles...'

Tony Pulis was asked, in time, what it was like at Stoke City when he arrived in the late autumn of 2002.

There was a long pause before the manager took a deep breath. It was as if he didn’t know where to start, but he finally declared: “It was an absolute shambles.”

The club’s managerial turmoil of the time – Gudjon Thordarson sacked after winning promotion, Steve Cotterill jumping ship after 13 games, George Burley’s disappearing act at the 11th hour and Dave Kevan, the last man standing amid a disastrous run – was just the tip of the iceberg.

The back pages of the Sentinel reporting on the managerial vacancy at Stoke City in late 2002. The first edition (L) with former Ipswich Town manager George Burley on the verge of taking the job and the final edition after his U-turn. (Image: PA Photo/Nick Potts)

Unity at board level was beginning to collapse, the fans felt locked out – particularly over the dismissal of the popular Thordarson – and writer Simon Lowe was lamenting the return of fighting on the terraces in his Sentinel column.

Pulis must have wondered why he’d bothered.

Although second choice for the job this time around, he had been Stoke’s preferred candidate when Brian Little left in 1999. Instead he had gone to Bristol City, a club who he believed had more “ambition” than Stoke at that time. And by that, he meant they didn’t have debts, hooligans, protests and a trigger-happy board.

His first game was at Walsall in the pouring rain on November 2, just 24 hours into the job. After his team leaked three second-half goals in 15 minutes, Pulis had the nerve to take off crowd favourite Bjarni Gudjonsson and striker Chris Iwelumo.

Disgusted Stoke fans chanted: “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

The rain falls on new Stoke City manager Tony Pulis at his first game in charge in 2002. He would keep the role for the best part of the next decade. (Image: Sentinel)

His substitutes, Andy Cooke and Chris Greenacre, both scored inside 10 minutes. Zigor Aranalde ultimately wrapped up the win for Walsall with a late penalty but those goals helped give Pulis some stock even as his side drifted to a fifth consecutive defeat.

He met 300 supporters for a question and answer introductory session that week and said: "It’s going to take time. It’s going to take all my efforts, all the players’ efforts, all the backroom staff’s efforts. But above all, it’s going to take your patience and support."

And he added: "This is your club and you will be here long after I’ve gone.

"What I bring is honesty and commitment. I have never been relegated in my life and I just hope and pray the sequence continues at Stoke City. It’s a massive football club with a strong supporter base and, like my last two clubs (Portsmouth and Bristol City), has enormous potential."

Tony Pulis's Q&A with Stoke fans in his first week in charge

Pulis on himself: This is your club and you will be here long after I’ve gone.

What I bring is honesty and commitment. I have never been relegated in my life and I just hope and pray the sequence continues at Stoke City. It’s a massive football club with a strong supporter base and, like my last two clubs, has enormous potential.

I love my football. I’m a passionate person and love my teams to compete. I have plenty of energy and enthusiasm and will be up and down the country looking for players. I just love watching matches, any matches, and love watching players.

On his targets: It is very difficult for Stoke making the jump from promotion to being a top six First Division club. If we stay in this League this season it is progress. Then we can push on.

If we can stay up, I believe there are players out there who will want to come here next summer. Not for wages, but for the potential and infrastructure at the club.

On the strength of the squad: There isn’t enough there to keep us up. We have to improve the squad. We need to bring in a certain type of player to improve us.

On finance (or lack of) and new signings: The Icelanders have ploughed some money into this club, and I’m desperate to get money out of them.

I’ve been on the phone quite a few times already about players. There are two or three young players I would love to bring in. Potentially they would not only improve the team, but also have potential value to the club. It’s vital Gunnar (Gislason) will hopefully help us. We’ve got to fight tooth and nail to get some money.

I will be desperately trying to get some money out of the chairman. All we can do is keep asking, keep throwing players at the chairman and hope he gives us money to spend.

On his type of player: The one thing players can give supporters is 110 per cent commitment. If they do, I’m sure supporters will get behind the team.

Individuals will help, but eventually it’s teams which win you games. I want 11 winners. They have to have ability, but the most important thing is their character and attitude towards football and the club. I always expect the best out of every player. If they don’t give it then they are cheating not only themselves, but also the club and the supporters. I want people who can play, but they’ve also got to be winners.

On his kind of style: At Gillingham we played positive football and played on the fact we were a big, strong, physical side who would get after players.

But our best player was Andy Hessenthaler, who was four foot two, and we did pass the ball. But we wanted people outside the club thinking we were an aggressive bunch of so and so’s. That way the opposition were taking a step back before a game.

I like to play positive, front-foot football. I’m not a person who likes 15 passes in your own half. I like to play through the pitch and get in plenty of crosses and shots. We will play the way it suits us and suits the players we have in the team.

On players: The power base which has been with the players for the last five or six years is slipping back to the clubs with the wages coming down. There are still players out of work and there will be even more next summer. Players are going to realise they have got to get in the real world again and clubs like Stoke City will benefit.

On Stoke players: There isn’t a bad lad in there. If anything, they are too nice and we need one or two leaders to come in and lead from the front.

If existing players aren’t good enough to keep us up, we have to change it because we cannot allow this club to go down. If there are some players here who are not as good at this level as they were in the Second Division, then we have to move them on. I don’t want to sell our better players. We have to keep our best players and I will be doing my damndest to do that.

On youngsters: We have some great talent here. There are tremendous young players like Neal, Goodfellow and Henry.

Whether it’s time to blood them when we are fighting for our lives is another matter and maybe we have to be careful with them.

At the moment, the thing to address is performances and results of the first team.

On foreigners: Players tend to stick together, whether they are Icelandic, Irish or whatever. My idea is to mix them up because you cannot have these little cliques.

I have no problem with race or creed. If they are good enough then I’ll be working with them, wherever they are from.

On Thomas and Clarke: I was scouting for other clubs last season and have shown my reports to chief scout Colin Dobson from three Stoke games. In each report the same two players have been highlighted after catching my eye and they were Wayne Thomas and Clive Clarke. But they are lacking confidence and confidence is such a massive factor for players.

On fitness: It surprised me players haven’t been doing weights. Every book you read on the subject says about the importance of weight training for improving strength, pace and power. Also, fitness levels are important.

We have certain drills and tests which will be brought in. I will be testing them on Monday, but I don’t want to kill them. We had a meeting after training and I harped on about preparation for matches and how it starts on a Thursday. It’s important they rest. It’s important they eat right and take on the right fluids. Tim Exeter, who is currently working with the All Blacks, is coming over to assess their fitness and will give them individual programmes.

On supporters: It’s going to take time. It’s going to take all my efforts, all the players’ efforts, all the backroom staff’s efforts. But above all, it’s going to take your patience and support.

On opting for Bristol City before Stoke in 1999: At the time there were stories flying around I had taken Bristol City because they were a bigger club than Stoke. But I don’t say anything disrespectful to other clubs. If I have something to say I prefer saying it to people’s faces and I’ve fallen out with two chairmen as a result.

On being tongue in cheek: Gudjon took you to the play-offs twice, got you promoted, then got the sack. What chance do I have?

It got worse before it got better...

Stoke were already in freefall before Pulis arrived but then lost their first four games under his stewardship to make it eight in a row.

It would take a further six games before Pulis claimed his first win, and that a 3-2 success over rock-bottom Sheffield Wednesday courtesy of a last-minute Brynjar Gunnarsson goal.

There were other stirring performances, particularly a 1-1 draw with league leaders Portsmouth and a 0-0 draw at second-placed Leicester.

But the turning point was a humiliating 6-0 thrashing at Nottingham Forest in February. Left with no choice, Pulis rang the chairman, Gunnar Gislason, with a warning.

A dejected Stoke City fan watches his side get beat 6-0 by Nottingham Forest in the spring of 2003. (Image: Sentinel)

He recalled: “I said to him, ‘Unless we get a few players in you can write this off, because the players I’m told are good enough aren’t good enough by a country-mile.’

"To be fair to him, he allowed me to do so and off we went. I’d listened to people’s views within the club for far too long, and that was the point at which I thought, ‘No, he has to be told the truth, whether he likes it or not’.”